The Legend of Zelda has captured the hearts and minds of gamers for 37 years. The original Legend of Zelda blazed a new frontier in video game play and technology. Zelda featured a large and expansive world, compelling characters, a great backstory, and a first of its kind console ability to save your place during your quest.

The Legend of Zelda was a huge differentiator for the Nintendo Entertainment System versus the competing SEGA Master System and NEO-GEO.

(I’m dating myself)

A Legacy of Innovative Gameplay

Later Zelda releases would see Link, the game series’ hero, experience ever more challenging obstacles in his quests to defend Hyrule and continuously save Princess Zelda. Ocarina of Time forced players to complete the quest in a very real 72 hours or be forced to start again. Zelda also introduced puzzles, music as a weapon, and an in-game camera system.

The Zelda franchise also pushed open world systems to new heights and experiences beginning with Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of the Kingdom is being released 6 years after Breath of the Wild and an amnesic Link woke up to save Zelda and Hyrule from Calamity Ganon.

Nintendo premiered a fantastic video featuring Tears of the Kingdom’s producer, Eiji Aonuma. He demonstrated Tears of the Kingdom’s expansive open world featuring sky islands, boulder elevators, and new enemies called constructs.

The game also gives Link a new power. Our hero can fuse different objects with weapons to create more lethal objects. Mr. Aonuma’s gameplay demonstrated making a regular tree branch more powerful by fusing it with a rock. The Fuse ability can also make longer weapons by fusing a tree branch with a pitch fork.

Link also gets an ability called Utrahand. Ultrahand allows him to craft objects out of on-hand materials. Link can Ultrahand boats, cars, and a paraglider.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is just over a month away. Nintendo’s latest quest in Hyrule is sure to take gamers’ breath away.

-MJ